AuthorTopic: I feel fine intro - electric razor? (Read 4465 times)

my dad (age 52) who lived through every part of the beatles, reckons... that when it came out there was loads of fuss saying that the intro to 'i feel fine' was created by plucking the chords of the guitar while they held John Lennons electric shaver/razor on the guitar, that is how the vibrating noise is created.

I cant find anything on the internet to either make or break this theory

many thanks Soft_Guitar60, I had read that site, there are also (for one reason or another) many different websites which use exactly the same text. that one talks in detail of the intro after the so called 'feedback' but with no mention as to how it was achieved.

Thats about right! I've read many articles and books that state Paul had struck an 'A' chord (I believe) on his bass and that fed through Johns guitar to cause the feedback. I've also read that John was using a semi-electric acoustic Gibson guitar (acoustic with a pick up) and that he leaned it on the amp without turning it off, in which caused the feedback. One of those mysteries in life we may never know.

There was no electric shaver...in 45 years I never even heard such a story!

Anyone who has set an electric guitar down knows that after a few minutes it will feedback all by itself. To actually set it next to or on the amp would really aggravate the feedback. To have a bass guitar sound a string would REALLY set up a sympathetic vibration causing a *very* distinct feedback sound.

Which is what happened. These guys used equipment constantly. It was inevitable that at some point this combination of events would happen. The real artistry is the genius involved in actually using the usually unwanted noise in the song itself.

Well, I don't mean to disparage your dad. Maybe he was kidding, or maybe he was just saying it -sounded- like that (Pictures Of Matchstick Men by Status Quo was always described as the 'mosquito-sounding song'). Or maybe a dj actually said that, there was a LOT of misinformation from them in the old days.

many thanks Soft_Guitar60, I had read that site, there are also (for one reason or another) many different websites which use exactly the same text. that one talks in detail of the intro after the so called 'feedback' but with no mention as to how it was achieved.

the mystery continues

It helps to know that at the time it happened, it was an accident. The feedback occurred as it usually does when a guitar is placed against an amp. Probably happened many times in the studio, but on that particular day it must have been really wicked sounding. Aha! George Martin was asked if they could add that onto the track. I'm guessing that they spent time experimenting to get the right sound before editing it on at the start of the track. No doubt, there's a tape in the EMI vault that is a medley of different feedback from that session. And yes, Paul remembers that John did play the semi-electric Gibson on that track.

Excellent demonstration, thanks for providing it. As John proved, he could duplicate it on stage. But I do have a question for you: What note are you hitting when you are producing the feedback? You are playing the song in G, with the opening chord being a D (unless my aging eyes are fooling me). The Beatles also played it in G, correct? To my ears, the feedback note on their track sounds like a G because when it segues into the opening chord, it seems to jump from the G (note) to the D (chord), much like the chord progression in the song itself. Having said that, much has been written about someone (John?) hitting an A for the feedback. I'm not an expert in music theory, but that doesn't seem right. Can you enlighten me?

So it was a sympathetic kind of thing, right? John's strings vibrating in reaction to Paul's A? Still, that explains the "accident", but I wonder if Paul struck a D when they tried to reproduce it for the track, just to make the feedback fit the key they were playing in.

Right. It was an A harmonic which led neatly into the opening D chord riff...

Thanks.

Going off-topic for a sec, I have to comment on your quote at the end of your posts. I pride myself on knowing Beatle lyrics, but I was fooled by John and George's bit on "Hello Goodbye". I swear I thought they were singing, "I can stay 'til it's too late to go", which is strangely very Lennonesque in its own way. I was kinda disappointed when I learned the real line. Just saying.